I’ll be honest.
As much as I love handmade, lovingly prepared artisanal products, I generally opt out of the giant twice-a-year One Of A Kind Show And Sale, for a variety of reasons.
1) The shows can get really cramped and uncomfortable and I despise that slow, laboured crawl that it takes to navigate them
2) People can get really rude and pushy over this kind of original stuff
3) I find a lot of what’s on offer to be prohibitively expensive
4) There’s nothing I hate more than giant groups of grasping ladies clucking and cawing at ridiculously high decibel levels
So, it came as as much of a surprise to me as it did to anyone else when I decided that I was going to head into the cacophonous convention din to give it a whirl. I suppose we can chalk that inspiration up to 2 ladies; my mother-in-law (who makes a pilgrimage every year) and my editor Sheryl (who ran a story on the best foodie booths on Friday).
I arrived around a quarter after 10 yesterday, shuttling myself down to the Direct Energy Centre by streetcar and asking the driver the stupidest question about whether it would drop me off close by, when a glance around the car packed with crafty looking ladies who all had their game faces and good walking shoes on should have been answer enough.
When I got there, the line up was daunting but moved very quickly. Once inside the exhibition area, I made my way down to the very last row and began weaving in and out of the aisles. It took me about an hour and a half to cover the whole show floor, but that was only because I generally knew what I wanted to see (food) so I only gave a cursory glance to most of the other booths. It also didn’t start to get really packed until I was getting ready to leave, but I can say with certainty that I would never, ever go to this during a prime shopping time (like on the weekend around lunch) because I hate to be hemmed in by a crowd.
While I was there I ran into a few familiar faces, including a coworker, Seth from Forbes Wild Foods, the Everyman’s uncle and aunt down from Windsor who we’d seen the night before (though his mother was surprisingly absent), and someone chowing down on a croissant that I thought was Malcolm Jolley. I wanted to introduce myself, being that we’ve chatted several times via email and such about food-related things, but it was early in the morning and the man was eating his breakfast, so obviously I didn’t want to intrude. There was also the potential that I was wrong and it wasn’t him, and honestly that would just have been really awkward.
In the whole gigantic show there’s really only 1.5 aisles worth of food-related wares, so after I’d walked the whole floor to check everything out, I made my way back to the food section to pick up my goodies and head for home (and a date with the Everyman to see Fantastic Mr. Fox).
- From my friends at Forbes Wild Foods, I collected a bottle of pure birch syrup and a jar of saskatoonberries in alcohol
- From Mr Vinegar I purchased bottles of cucumber and barley vinegars
- From Bruce County Nut & Fudge (whom I remember from their appearance on Dragon’s Den) I selected a cinnamon sugar speckled candy apple for the Everyman
- From Cook’s Gourmet I picked a bottle of deliciously hot pepperonata spread
- From Beetroot Delights I chose 2 diminutive bottles of beet jelly and beetalade
- And lastly, from Rootham Gourmet Preserves I bought several samples including Thai dipping sauce, Irish Caramel sauce, basil red pepper thyme sauce and black pepper lime chutney
I was most excited about the birch syrup, since I’d tried in vain to secure some from another vendor at the Royal a few weeks ago, but had gotten discouraged by the long line up for it. It turns out it was for the best, because Seth advised me that the version I hadn’t bought was not pure, but rather diluted with maple syrup, which is definitely not what I was looking for (since I’m not a big fan of maple syrup). I’m looking forward to experimenting with the birch syrup a bit, but carefully, because a tiny bottle ran me $20. I’ve been getting really into the idea of carbonated beverages recently, so I might try making my own birch beer soda.
Other than that, everything else I filled my purse with were just random edibles that managed to catch my eye. I purposely avoided all of the chocolate and cookie booths because I enjoy making either of those too much to bother with buying them from someone else, and they really didn’t speak to me. My sister in law and mother in law both sing the praises of Brook’s Delectable Chocolate, but I never really got into it. Otherwise, there were a few other booths selling jams, vinegars and sauces, some ethnic condiment booths (Thai and Latino) and a few Christmas cake shops as well.
At that point, I was just happy that I’d managed to get in and out relatively quickly and without getting trampled. And $100 later (including admission), I managed to come away with a bag full of unique edibles (some of which I’d never heard of before, like Beetroot Delights). So I guess it wasn’t so bad after all, but now that food convention season is over, I’m looking forward to a nice long rest until next year.
Until next time…
Tags: Beetroot Delights, Brook's Delectable Chocolate, Bruce County Nut & Fudge, condiments, Cook's Gourmet, Forbes Wild Foods, Malcolm Jolley, Mr Vinegar, One Of A Kind Show, Purveyors, Rootham's Gourmet, vinegar
